Journey through software development

Extreme Programming: Whole Team

Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the agile software development methodologies. Therefore it focuses on short development cycles and to do so it has defined several practices to follow when working with it. In this blog post I will introduce the first one: Whole Team.

As a professional developer I firmly believe in collaboration among a software development team. I believe that is by working together that we are able to create more valuable products.

The developers, the testers, the project manager and the business analysts (sometimes called “product owners”) have a common goal: product value for their customers. This is why they have to work closely with each others and they should be able to speak with each others easily, a good communication is mandatory.

Every role is important in the organization and everyone as a part to play in the project. The business analysts know what has to be done, they represent the customers needs. The developers know how it has to be done, the testers ensure that the quality standards are met and the project manager makes sure that everything runs smoothly.

I know that all of this makes sense, yet sometimes I feel like the common vision is lost in a software development team. Maybe you have experienced the well-known “programmers vs the business” work environment, or maybe the “developers vs testers”.

I know that I have experienced similar situations and I was part responsible for it. Because I only had consideration for my world, where coding is king and everything else is secondary. Now I keep in mind the “big picture”: creating value for the clients. It still requires writing well-crafted code, it is my role in the team. I have to make my teammates understand my point of view and I also have to understand their.

When working in an agile environment, in Extreme Programming for instance, you have to keep in mind that you are part of a whole team. Everyone as a role toward the creation of value.